Archive for category Feminism

I know, I just wrote about this, but I’m going to do so again. I’d like to do my small part in turning up the volume on this.

Disney has done done it again.

Star Wars Rogue One has a female lead. Hopefully, they remember that in the brand marketing. I mean really, did they forget when making the toys, cereal boxes, etc, that Rey was in the movie and, you know, central to the plot?

I digress.

I pretty much said everything I want to say about Rogue One. I love that there is another female lead. I love that my daughter will get to see that and will probably want her toy too. She got Rey for Christmas.

When Rogue One is successful – and it will be, oh it will be (it is Star Wars, after all) – we will probably see more and more female lead characters. Which got me thinking – what makes a good female lead?

Bravo to Disney for another female lead in a science fiction movie. It is not the first that a franchise has seen a leading lady, and you would think after the awesome that is Ripley, fan boys would not be afraid of them.

Oh how silly.

The Good Ole Boys are at it again. What amazed me, though, were the handles … specifically the Robotech-inspired handle.

Now I will forgive you if you do not know what Robotech is, but only long enough for you to educate yourself. I know I am decades late in warning but … spoilers are ahead.

So, on G+ a friend shared about her experience discussing the issues she had with the presentation of women in a specific game and the internet responded, and it was basically a lot of back and forth of misunderstanding. Why? If you’ve ever been a gamer, you really don’t have to ask that. You already know. If you’re not a gamer – that is a person who sits around a table (or these days a digital table, as traditional table top games move to online play to accommodate people moving and what-not) – then you probably don’t know.

And that’s okay. I’m going to explain it to you.

You could say I’m going to gamexplain it.

Which is probably only amusing in my head. Moving along.

So, you are talking about people who, as a group, will happily sit there and argue for at minimum fifteen minutes, but upwards of the entire game session (most averaging about 4 hours), with the GM (Game Master, for the uninitiated) and/or other players about things like whether or not the inclusion of exclusion of an oxford comma in the sentence about SR (Spell Resistance, fellow gamers, bear with me) means that their wizard/sorcerer has to make the Caster Level Check or not. Or … and this one is even better. They will happily write up at minimum three-page story backgrounds on no less than five to seven different cheesed-to-the-nines character concepts just to whittle down the poor GM or Storyteller (the White Wolf Games name for a GM) and get them to approve their Halfling Monk/Paladin to Yondalla or their Mokele (You know, Dragons in White Wolf – though to be fair, still better than weresharks).

In other words, gamers love to argue.

But gamers aren’t really what I want to talk about.

What I want to talk about is the role of women in fiction and media. Games sparked this thinking in my head, but this holds for really anything print, audio, or video, that we consume on a daily basis.

I’m going to share with you a great little song my Permanent Editor shared with me.

My Facebook feed has gotten a little busy the last couple of days over Dungeons & Dragons 5e Player’s Handbook. Now, I will apologize in advance for not being able to link back to any official statement from WotC (Wizards of the Coast for you non-gamer types) for this. I did a Google search, and the only things I can find are blogs talking about it. I did not, however, find WotC backing up and going “Woah, woah, wait a second. We’re not trying to tread new ground here” and several of the people sharing the news are themselves industry insiders (that’s where I first heard it from, and insider I follow on Facebook). So, going by the ethos of those sharing and no back-peddling from WotC, I’m going with legit.

So, I’ve gotten to watch the Matrix (original … the series goes downhill from there) a few times over the last week, since BBC America keeps showing it. I swear, they have more American shows on than British shows.

Anyway, as I’m watching, I’m paying attention to the character of Trinity because, well, I think she’s awesome. It isn’t just the tight black outfit. The character is smart, resourceful, and strong-willed. She is a capable soldier and, when she needs to be, a capable leader. She is a female character is a science fiction movie who is also a love interest. She is also not a damsel in distress.